We turn not older with years but newer every day

The answer lies in the Upgrade Paradox: Version 2 is always both older and newer than Version 1.

In past times, before regular upgrades, a product or a person would simply get older. Each year, whether you liked it or not, you’d age by another year.

Today, with regular upgrades, the latest version of Adidas or Apple or Adele is newer than last year’s, even though the brand is older.

This upgrade paradox first struck me when I heard my friend, Lynne Twist, tell the story of having dinner with futurist, Buckminster Fuller. Lynne and Bill had their two young kids at dinner as well, and one of them said something profound and seemingly beyond her years.

Seeing the surprise in Lynne and Bill’s eyes, Bucky said:

“Our children are our elders in universe time.”

When we think in earth time, we thing of things getting older. When we think in universe time, we thing of things getting more advanced. Bucky meant that as our children are born into a universe more advanced than the one we were born into, they are already advanced versions of ourselves.

In today’s fast changing times, the beauty is that you can continue to upgrade yourself to become newer each year.

We live with a body that we can maintain, and a mind that we can upgrade. For your 2016 upgrade:

What are the best parts you choose to keep?
Which are the parts you choose to take out?
Which are the parts you choose to add?

Upgrading yourself is a conscious choice – which automatically leads to a newer you. By upgrading yourself, the 2016 version of you is newer and more advanced than the 2015 version of you.

And the opposite is also true. By failing to upgrade yourself, you’re simply choosing to step in to a new year and a new universe equipped with the old version of you, built for another time.

So if you haven’t already undergone a full system upgrade for the year ahead, do it now! Become the wise child of your past self.